I hope you liked your shoes

I am a member of AAUW – an organization dedicated to advancing equity for women and girls through education, advocacy and research. As a member, I subscribe to their action alerts. A lot of the time I get an alert, read it, feel pissed off and delete it. Sometimes, I fire off an email to the appropriate congressperson.

Today, I thought I’d share.

August 24 marked the one-year anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration‘s approval of the over-the-counter sale of emergency contraception for women over 18. Despite this, many women and health care providers remain unaware of this important contraception option, and many who have heard of it hold varying misconceptions about it.

In honor of this anniversary, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) introduced the Emergency Contraception Education Act (H.R. 3372). This critical piece of legislation will initiate a large-scale education campaign to better inform women and health care providers about emergency contraception. Specifically, the legislation will direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop and disseminate information on EC to health care providers-including recommendations on the use of EC in appropriate cases-and to the American people.

Nearly half of pregnancies of U.S. women are unintended, and four in 10 of those pregnancies end in abortion. Increased access to information about emergency contraception will help reduce unplanned pregnancies, reduce abortions, and improve access to women’s health care. In addition, only 12 states currently require hospital emergency rooms to provide emergency contraception-related services to victims of sexual assault, even though it is often the only contraceptive option available to them.

AAUW supports the right of every woman to obtain medically accurate information about and access to safe and comprehensive reproductive health services. AAUW believes that improved pregnancy prevention programs and access to complete reproductive health information and services enhance women’s reproductive choices.

Take Action!
Urge your representative to cosponsor and support the Emergency Contraception Education Act (H.R. 3372) to improve the reproductive health and safety of all women and girls. Simply click on the “Take Action” link in the upper right corner or copy and paste the following URL into your Internet browser. Then follow the instructions to send your message. http://capwiz.com/aauw/issues/alert/?alertid=10323876&type=CO

My biggest problem with “Plan B” is that so many people have a problem with it. And those people are generally the same people who have a problem with abortion (and often with birth control at all). People, you can’t have everything. You want to decrease abortions? Let people prevent pregnancy. I know that some people view the morning after pill, and even daily birth control pills as abortion (birth control can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus as well as just inhibit ovulation), but come on! Really. People have sex. That’s just how it is. Seriously. You people who are out there all anti-choice and anti-woman, you’ve probably had sex. You probably even had pre- or extra- marital sex. You just got lucky. So – in conclusion: encourage your congresspersons to support this bill. Also, encourage your local pharmacies to NOT hire asshat pharmacists who won’t fill prescriptions on moral grounds. And then, let’s take over the world.